𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐎 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑!

A lone brow is raised in response to his brother’s ominous reply. Though his return was nothing short of a miracle in Klaus’ opinion, he can also recognize that awful sense of foreboding, that ever present weight in the air, that nagging voice telling them that this peace is only momentary. Klaus wants to say something to lighten the load, but as always, words fall short. He was trained to kick ass, not to deal with estranged prophetic brothers.

But then something inside his brother switches, and Klaus suddenly feels safe. He recognizes the softness in Five’s features; it’s the same softness that was there when they were no older than 10, sneaking downstairs for some fluffernut sandwiches. 

He lets out a small scoff at the awkwardly forced reply that comes out next, but nods in agreement nonetheless. 

“I think Dad always kept it cold on purpose. Fuckin’ bastard always wanted us as miserable as possible.” He takes the nearest blanket and wraps it around his shoulders like a cape. “But hey, if it gets cold enough, we can have that family snowball fight we always wanted, huh?”

𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑰𝑺 𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮,  𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑵𝑲𝑺.   It’s something new   &&   it frightens him.  This vulnerability,  this cracking open of the heart   &&   letting the warm gooey center leak out.  Years upon years of building the exoskeleton,  convincing himself that it’s better to be this way,  to be hidden within himself,  to be huddled within the shell of the child he once was.   

𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑰𝑺 𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑮𝑹𝑬𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑺?   Nobody.  He doesn’t exist.  He’s the choked sob as blood leaks from behind your teeth   &&   he’s the slight twitch of the knuckle as  ready, aim, fire.  becomes more than just a kindergarten catchphrase. He’s been nothing but the fifty words for murder   &&   goddamnit where can you find softness in the scraps of a bullet casing? 

𝑩𝑼𝑻 𝑰𝑵 𝑺𝑶𝑭𝑻𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬 𝑰𝑺 𝑺𝑨𝑳𝑽𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵,   &&   Five knows this.  This is the only way to save their lives,   &&   he cannot lose them a second time.  Hope is a nonrenewable resource   &&   there was so little to begin with.  He won’t survive it. 

@apocalypsedeterrent​

        𝑻𝑯𝑬  𝑼𝑵𝑰𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑬  𝑯𝑨𝑺  𝑳𝑨𝑾𝑺.   𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬  𝑰𝑻  𝑶𝑹  𝑵𝑶𝑻,  𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺  𝑰𝑺  𝑨  𝑭𝑨𝑪𝑻.   It has carefully crafted its blueprints for its operation  &&  it was only  FAIR  that humanity obeys these laws.  In the grand scheme of things,  it was a small price to pay for the allowance of  EXISTENCE.  You live  IN MY HOUSE   you  OBEY MY RULES  sort of thing.  &&  besides,  the universe had made it fairly easy for the average human to not be able to disobey these rules in the  FIRST PLACE,  so for the most part,  humanity never really  QUESTIONED  them.

        𝑩𝑼𝑻  𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬,  𝑭𝑹𝑶𝑴  𝑨𝑵  𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑳𝒀  𝑨𝑮𝑬,  𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑪𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑫  that he didn’t LIKE rules very much  &&  sought to bend them as often as he could.  Even the strictest, most consolidated of rules could be made malleable if one just happened to be stubborn enough.     &&  if you were,  in one way or another,  NO AVERAGE HUMAN.

         𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺, 𝑰𝑵  𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵,  𝑾𝑶𝑼𝑳𝑫  𝑬𝑿𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑰𝑵  𝑻𝑯𝑬  𝑻𝑬𝑴𝑷𝑶𝑹𝑨𝑳   𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻  𝑶𝑭  𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑰𝑬𝑺,   &&   why Five was looking rather  MELANCHOLIC  towards a different version of himself.  He looked younger,  but Five knew how he was with the  RULES  of existence,  so adjectives had lost all meaning here. 

        𝑺𝑶𝑭𝑻𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺  𝑰𝑺  𝑨  𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮  𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑬𝑺𝑺,  Five knew this.  Softness was not taught amongst the  SELF-DEFENSE   &&   TEAM-BUILDING-EXERCISES  of his youth so Five had to teach it to himself.  It doesn’t come as naturally as learning how to snap necks  &&  which artery will spew blood the fastest but  HE’S GETTING THERE,  Five Hargreeves is nothing if not  STUBBORN  &&  he wants it,  he wants it badly enough it  BURNS  to think of himself without it.  

        𝑫𝑰𝑽𝑰𝑵𝑰𝑻𝒀  𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑰𝑷𝑷𝑬𝑫  𝑴𝑨𝑵  𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑬𝑺  𝑫𝑶𝑾𝑵  𝑨𝑻  𝑯𝑰𝑺  𝑶𝑾𝑵  𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺.   He wants to practice what he’s learned,  he wants to show himself the tenderness he wasn’t privy to as a child,  he wants to mimic his mother  &&   his brother  &&   emit a healing light,  HE WANTS A LOT OF THINGS,  he wants to hold himself tightly enough that he forgets that agony is the price of his own existence   &&   say to himself    ❝  I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THE HORRORS I’VE SEEN!  ❞  &&  the words nearly spill from his lips when Five notices the exhaustion plastered under his eyes  &&   realizes that  THERE’S NOTHING LEFT TO PROTECT HIM FROM.

@theseancekid   ‣     ❝  this whole house is cold.  ❞

         ❝ Yea?  In about eight days its gonna get a lot  COLDER. ❞ 

          𝑨  𝑴𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻  𝑶𝑭  𝑺𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬,   a mili-second of the synapses firing off each other ;  that’s all the  TIME  it requires for sparks of  GUILT  to well inside Five’s chest.  He softens.  Slightly.  Please forgive him ;  the action is just so foreign to him.  A lifetime of blood-stained hands left the  PROGICAL SON  unfamiliar with the action.  Softness.  What an  ESTRANGED  concept.  He tries it,  stepping gingerly into uncharted waters.

presenting my five’s basic backstory because writing prose is hard and finishing my google doc is a pain in my fucking ASS but i still want people to understand where i’m coming from ya feel. the major divergences are bolded.

I.  Basically, my Five is canon divergent. He follows everything in canon up to the point where he time travels for the first time;  this error softened him. Being alone made him realize how much he misses his family and he wants to learn how to show how much he loves them.

II.  After he ran from the commission and traveled to 2019, Five came back as a 30-year-old, not a 13-year-old. he’s less angry as well; i’m gonna say that the lack of the 13 year-old-hormones makes him more steady-headed.

III.  When he came back, instead of brushing his siblings off like he does in canon, he runs to embrace them and wordlessly swears to protect them from the horrors he’s seen. When he recognizes their faces from their corpses and realizes they’re going to die soon, he grabs the first sibling he sees and holds them tight.

IV.  He’s still snarky and a bastard and thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread and can expertly murder someone with his big toe he’s just a little softer. 

❝That sounds suspiciously unlike yourself. It’s too late to change events?❞ It sounded so incredibly unlike Five that Ben was having trouble believing this was his brother. ❝Aren’t you the one with the ability to jump through space and time?❞

        𝑻𝑯𝑬  𝑬𝑳𝑫𝑬𝑹  𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵𝑺  𝑨𝑾𝑨𝒀,  𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑰𝑳𝑫𝑰𝑵𝑮  𝑯𝑰𝑺  𝑩𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑹𝑶𝑴  𝑯𝑰𝑺  𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑬.  It was true,  Five supposes,  that isn’t something Ben would expect his brother to say.  But things have  CHANGED,  Five has changed;  so much so that it bordered on being some type of  MURDER.

@numbinghigh ‣ "cover me" by depeche mode​ 

          ❝  The air is so  COLD   here... It's so hard to breathe. We better take cover,  ❞  the divinity-stripped soul pays a glance towards his brother.  If you look closely,  you may catch a glimmer of suffocated  VULNERABILITY.  

@goodpeopledie​   ‣     𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞